PIP Inc. Mystery Books in Order

The PIP Inc. Mysteries follow Pat Pirard, a Santa Cruz County law librarian who is forced to rethink her future after losing her job on her thirty-fifth birthday. Pat has research skills, persistence, and a talent for noticing when a story does not add up. What she does not have, at first, is a settled plan for paying the bills.

So she makes one.

Pat begins taking investigative work for attorneys, turning her library training into a new career as a private investigator. The series has fun with the gap between knowing how to locate information and learning how to handle suspicious people, dangerous situations, and the pressure of a live case. Pat is smart, practical, and still figuring out what kind of investigator she wants to be.

Her best friend, Syda Gonzales, is an important part of the mix. Syda is creative, opinionated, and always ready to pull Pat into a new project or idea. Their friendship gives the stories warmth and humor, especially when the mystery gets complicated. Pat's home life, including her pets, also keeps the books rooted in ordinary concerns even when murder enters the picture.

In The Glass House, Pat is reeling from being downsized when Syda brings her to a glass-forming class. The class should be a distraction, but the death of its instructor gives Pat a first chance to put her research abilities to work on a murder investigation. It is a fresh-start story as much as a mystery, with art, secrets, and a suspect who needs help.

The Funeral Murder gives Pat a more established assignment. An estate attorney hires her after his client dies at a funeral, leaving behind a complicated estate and a tangle of possible heirs. When the autopsy reveals that the death was anything but simple, Pat has to dig through the woman's past before the case gets even more dangerous.

These are cozy mysteries with a little romance, a strong sense of place, and cases built around workaday details that suddenly become clues. Readers can expect Santa Cruz settings, colorful side characters, and a lead investigator who learns by doing. Start with The Glass House to meet Pat at the moment her old life ends and her new one begins.